E.J. Montini began writing news columns for The Arizona Republic shortly before the first governor in state history was impeached, continued doing so as another governor was indicted and resigned, and has carried on over 25 years through out-of-control urban sprawl, unchecked illegal immigration, increasing daily temperatures, decreasing rainfall and recession. Coincidence?

Only three?

I was on the telephone talking to a reader Tuesday when he asked me if I knew anything about the shooting at a Texas community college. He’d heard on the radio that there had been an incident but he didn’t know any details.

I told him that reports I’d read said that three people had been wounded, possibly during a confrontation between two shooters. A suspect was among the wounded.

“Only three?” the man said.

Then he paused and added, “I can’t believe I just said that. I guess we’re so accustomed to these things that when you hear only three people have been shot and none of them are dead you don’t think it’s big deal.”

He’s right.

We’ve grown so accustomed to the carnage that it takes a massacre on the scale of Newtown to shock us.

And even then it’s unclear if anything constructive will be done.

Only three?

How about four… five… six…

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